Seat issues and how to fix stickiness

[lexuslandcruiser]

My 2002 LC had a previous owner who put some sort of awful leather treatment on every seat, front and back, and destroyed the leather. It's cracked, foam bulging out, and worst of all they become sticky in the heat.

The front seats arm rests don't stay where you put them. They are either all the way up or down. My LX470 would click/stay in a specific spot. Is that an LX470 feature, or are my arm rests just busted?

They also swapped the headrests to ones with ancient TV screens in them and they don't have clicks to hold their position, they just flop back to all the way down. Not bad for around town but terrible for long drives. My LX470 had some cracks in the bottom leather, but it was extremely comfortable on long drives.

So my question is with all these various seat related issues, should I find a 100 being parted out and get the seats, or are mine worth putting the time/money into?
I'd be fine with reupholstering the current seats, but the armrest and headrest problems still won't be solved.

The rear seats are in good shape, but really slimy and in the heat they stick to your clothes and will stain your shorts.

Any suggestions?
TIA!

 

[Exiled]

There are folks out there that have replaced their stock seats with badass aftermarket seats like Scheelmann, you might want to check around and see if someone still has the original seats, sounds like yours aren't the ones to use as the core for a repair. I recently saw on Instagram a Land Cruiser shop that is "restoring" a 100 series and they showed pictures of the Scheelmann seat already bought for them. Maybe try TLC4x4 or Corsetti?

And for clarification, the arm rests are adjustable on the 100 series too, they should stay in a number of positions in between.

 

[lexuslandcruiser]

Very helpful, thanks!

 

[Mike NXP]

My 2002 LC had a previous owner who put some sort of awful leather treatment on every seat, front and back, and destroyed the leather. It's cracked, foam bulging out, and worst of all they become sticky in the heat.

The front seats arm rests don't stay where you put them. They are either all the way up or down. My LX470 would click/stay in a specific spot. Is that an LX470 feature, or are my arm rests just busted?

They also swapped the headrests to ones with ancient TV screens in them and they don't have clicks to hold their position, they just flop back to all the way down. Not bad for around town but terrible for long drives. My LX470 had some cracks in the bottom leather, but it was extremely comfortable on long drives.

So my question is with all these various seat related issues, should I find a 100 being parted out and get the seats, or are mine worth putting the time/money into?
I'd be fine with reupholstering the current seats, but the armrest and headrest problems still won't be solved.

The rear seats are in good shape, but really slimy and in the heat they stick to your clothes and will stain your shorts.

Any suggestions?
TIA!

My 02 cruiser has the click to lock arm rest. They may not be installed properly as there is a certain way to pop them in place. I don't think that is a LX only thing. You may be able to fix it. Pop the plastic cover off the end, and remove the arm rest. Very easy to remove and inspect.


Finding parted out seats are nearly impossible, at least in my experience, and then shipping is a huge hit. s*** I don't think I've ever even seen a 100 series cruiser in a junk yard but then again there isn't much near me. Maybe bigger cities have more options

For the headrest, maybe you could go for an ebay knock off or something aftermarket . OR maybe you can find OEM headrest on ebay


I reupholstered my seats with land cruiser heaven leather, my thread is here. It was a time consuming knuckle buster but you can do it for sure. The bottom foam will most likely need to be replaced. The seat back foam comes back to life with a quick steaming.

>> Possibly some type of cleaner could take up the old material? Lets see a picture. Do you have a steamer?

I really hate the look of aftermarket seats, someone posted here there build with brown Scheleman or whatever. Its a good looking seat but remember every time you replace an OEM part with aftermarket, a little bit of your cruiser dies inside.


Could go classy
>>Shear Comfort Seat Covers - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/shear-comfort-seat-covers.1334759/#post-15405748

Another option for slip on. I thought these looked pretty good
>>FINALLY found seat covers - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/finally-found-seat-covers.1308340/

 

[lexuslandcruiser]

My 02 cruiser has the click to lock arm rest. They may not be installed properly as there is a certain way to pop them in place. I don't think that is a LX only thing. You may be able to fix it. Pop the plastic cover off the end, and remove the arm rest. Very easy to remove and inspect.


Finding parted out seats are nearly impossible, at least in my experience, and then shipping is a huge hit. s*** I don't think I've ever even seen a 100 series cruiser in a junk yard but then again there isn't much near me. Maybe bigger cities have more options

For the headrest, maybe you could go for an ebay knock off or something aftermarket . OR maybe you can find OEM headrest on ebay


I reupholstered my seats with land cruiser heaven leather, my thread is here. It was a time consuming knuckle buster but you can do it for sure. The bottom foam will most likely need to be replaced. The seat back foam comes back to life with a quick steaming.

>> Possibly some type of cleaner could take up the old material? Lets see a picture. Do you have a steamer?

I really hate the look of aftermarket seats, someone posted here there build with brown Scheleman or whatever. Its a good looking seat but remember every time you replace an OEM part with aftermarket, a little bit of your cruiser dies inside.


Could go classy
>>Shear Comfort Seat Covers - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/shear-comfort-seat-covers.1334759/#post-15405748

Another option for slip on. I thought these looked pretty good
>>FINALLY found seat covers - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/finally-found-seat-covers.1308340/

Thank you! Very helpful. 8+ hours for each seat is so much time for just seat covers! That's almost as much time as it took me to do my steering rack.

I'm gonna try to find a part out truck somewhere nearby and snag its seats since I need the headrest too. Frustrating to say that least, since I guess the PO of my LC used some sort of low quality leather cleaner that dried out the leather and its in terrible shape now.

Anyway, thanks again for your share here